Alarming behaviour

Over 80% of Brits fail to register the sound of a car alarm. That is the finding of Insurance company Aviva after undertaking a ‘social experiment’ to measure ‘alarm apathy.’

The study involved intentionally setting off a car alarm in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester, hiding in the bushes (not really), and monitoring the response of pedestrians.

The typical response from civvy street was that most people would either pass by or have a quick look to see if there were any signs of a break in, but few would go out of their way to do anything about it.

Martin Smith, motor claims manager at Aviva, said: ‘Alarms obviously offer a straightforward method for protecting a car and it's important that, where possible, cars are fitted with them, but it's clear from our research that they have become like urban white noise - as commonplace as dogs barking, sirens and everyday traffic.

‘Our data shows that theft of and from cars goes up over the Spring break and with an additional bank holiday this year we would urge motorists to adopt other common sense security measures to help them from falling victim to car thieves.’